Poland

Poland is a country in central Europe touching Germany on the west and the Baltic Sea on the north. In 1999, it joined NATO and in 2004, the European Union.

Media
The BBC says of the country's media:
 * Poland's broadcasting market is the largest in Eastern and Central Europe and has attracted investment from foreign media groups. There is freedom and diversity of information, although laws against deriding the nation and its political system are still in force.

War in Iraq
In 2003, Poland supported the U.S invasion of Iraq and in September of that year sent in 2,500 soldiers. In November 2007, Donald Tusk, the newly elected prime minister, said that the remaining 900 Polish soldiers would be withdrawn sometime in 2008. The withdrawal was part of his election campaign and is supported by a majority of the Polish people.

Polish lobbying and public relations in the U.S.
The Center for Public Integrity says about the country, "Poland spent close to $500,000 annually influencing American public opinion in the three years after 9/11 through lobbying, public relations, and trade promotion activities regulated and disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act."

Money from the U.S. to Poland
The Center for Public Integrity also says, "Poland has become one of the largest recipients of U.S. military assistance. In the three years before 9/11, it received just over $33 million in U.S. military training and assistance. In the three years after, the total was nearly tenfold: more than $300 million, mostly in Coalition Support Funds as reimbursement for expenses incurred by Polish forces in Iraq, according to ICIJ's [International Consortium of Investigative Journalists] database of military training and assistance."

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Coalition of the willing
 * Coalition of the willing: beginning of the end
 * John R. Davis, Jr. - former US ambassador

External resources

 * Poland, National Geographic, accessed December 2007.